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Pat Narduzzi's blunt comments about the officiating in the Pittsburgh Panthers' win over the West Virginia Mountaineers last Saturday came back to bite him — financially.
The ACC has dropped the hammer on Narduzzi for his criticism of the officials in the said football game, with the conference reprimanding him publicly in a statement released on Sunday. The ACC also fined Narduzzi $5,000.
“The Atlantic Coast Conference issued a public reprimand of Pitt's football coach Pat Narduzzi for violating the ACC Sportsmanship Policy following Pitt's win over West Virginia on September 14,” the statement read (h/t Chris Vannini of The Athletic).
“In addition, the league announced that an institutional fine has been issued to Pitt ($5,000) as a result of the violation.”
The fine that will be collected from the Pittsburgh football mentor will be donated to the Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford Postgraduate Scholarship account.
It can be recalled that Narduzzi put the refs on blast following the Panthers' thrilling 38-34 victory at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.
“Some of the calls we got — late hit out of bounds, they catch a ball with a hands in the face and I've never seen anything like it, you know?” Narduzzi said (h/t ESPN senior writer Andrea Adelson). “Wow. We beat West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, and we beat the officials, too, in one game.”
As noted by the ACC in its statement, Narduzzi's behavior violated the conference's policy on sportsmanship when he publicly berated the officials for the way they handled the contest: “Individuals associated with the athletics program are prohibited, therefore, from commenting while acting in an official capacity on officiating other than directly to the Conference office.”
Against the Mountaineers, Pittsburgh drew 12 penalties to just seven for West Virginia
Narduzzi was hired by the Panthers in 2014 to coach the program beginning in the 2015 football season. Since then, Pittsburgh has played in six total bowl games, winning two of them. The Panthers, however, won just three games in the 2023 season against nine losses.
Pittsburgh football stays undefeated after three games
The Panthers were down by as many as 10 points in the fourth quarter after West Virginia senior wide receiver
Justin Robinson completed his only catch of the afternoon for a touchdown with a little under five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
It was all Pittsburgh from that point, with Panthers junior wider receiver Daejon Reynolds scoring a touchdown reception off of a pass from quarterback Eli Holstein to cut West Virginia's lead down to three points. Pittsburgh grabbed the lead for good after a one-yard touchdown run from Derrick Davis Jr.
Holstein has been superb under center for the Panthers, who have been relying a lot on the former Alabama Crimson Tide signal-caller. Through three starts this season, Holstein has manufactured 939 passing yards and nine touchdowns against only two interceptions on a 67.6 percent completion rate. He had 301 passing yards and three touchdowns without an interception on 21-of-30 pass completions versus West Virginia.
Narduzzi's Panthers are still undefeated thus far in the 2024 college football season after beating the Ken State Golden Flashes (55-24), Cincinnati Bearcats (28-27), and West Virginia.
Pittsburgh will deal with a lightweight up next, with the Youngstown State Penguins of the Missouri Valley Football Conference on September 21 at home. After that, the Panthers will get their first conference test of the season with a date in Chapel Hill with the North Carolina Tar Heels on October 4.
